Applejack calmly walked away from the Pegasus, barely even listening to his cries of pain out of a mixture of annoyance and complete anger. As she heard the sounds of both Wildcat and Vanoss approaching him, she was given even further reason to not listen, especially so after Delirious began to yell even more thanks to his friends now kicking the absolute shit out of him as he lay on the floor.

Looking around the area, she gave a long sigh and looked toward the sun, now beginning to settle behind the mountains to the west. Blinking, she worked her jaw, feeling a yawn coming on. Attempting to suppress it, she failed miserably. Finished, she scratched her side and adjusted the Stetson atop her head. Quite honestly, she just wanted to get back home.

She had only come by to get Apple Bloom, anyway.

She frowned, knowing she had failed in that as well. Apple Bloom was usually around Delirious, and if not, the filly was around her friends. Not finding her around the former, she didn’t even see the latter. So, with yet another sigh, she began to walk home. Bloom could get home anytime if she wanted to anyway. She knew the way.

Trotting toward Ponyville, Applejack began to think about the events that were supposed to be happening: the Harvest was today. She, Bloom, and Macintosh were supposed to be out and about in their fields, working the whole day to get as much done as possible. They were supposed to. But they weren’t. All because of Applejack.

Thinking about this, the mare lowered her head, ashamed. She had misplaced the cart, and it was all her fault that they wouldn’t be able to begin the Harvest that day. All because she had made some stupid decision. It wasn’t right to blame the others. She could’ve said no very easily.

Applejack shook her head, not wanting to think about it. This only furthered her thinking about it, and she sighed for the third time that afternoon. Continuing on her way, she started to think about what she would have to do in order to get the money that she had spent back. The cart was worth hundreds of bits in tools and equipment.

The cart was-

Something bright flickered to her right. Looking toward the source, she found that it had shone from inside a small forested area, apparently nestled behind a pair of closely-packed trees. Brow raised in curiosity, she began to walk toward it, head tilted this way and that as if trying to determine whether or not something was wrong.

Stepping onto a group of exposed roots, she turned her head, seeing the three guys still talking away at miles per second, their explanations and stories somehow reaching her eyes. For a half second, Applejack wondered what a Cockatoo’s was and shook her head, casually stepping into the boundaries of the woods. Advancing, she looked to her left as she passed an oak tree and saw it.

The cart.

It glimmered at her, easily as bright and clean as the last day she had seen it. Eyes shining, she smiled at it as she approached. The good feeling quickly dissipated, and Applejack jumped back, getting into a low crouch as she grit her teeth, scanning the area around her. Something was up.

Eyes narrowed, the mare looked around for any signs of sudden movement. Something about this was odd, and so Applejack took extreme caution as she backed toward the cart. Giving one last look, she turned to look at the wagon and raised an eyebrow.

Everything seemed to be exactly where it was prior to its disappearance.

Frowning slightly, she walked around it, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Groaning as she found nothing of the sort, she walked back to the front and began to hook herself up to it. As she placed the ring around her body, she caught a glimpse of something amongst the tools. Stopping, she placed the setup on the ground, leaning over and picking the note off of the bright silver shovel.

Her green eyes narrowed as she read it.

Finished, she blinked, swallowing a lump in her throat as she put it back down.

She didn’t feel very safe all of a sudden.

Quickly, she returned to the hooks and attached herself to the cart. Shaking her head again, she gave a small smile. Prob’ly just a buncha kids messin’ around. Ain’t no use worryin’ about it.

Raising a hoof, she trotted out of the forest and began to head back home. There was a lot for her to start doing when she arrived there. Clearing the field of the bus’ wreckage, Applejack began to descend the small hill, intent on getting back as soon as possible. She had postponed the Harvest for a whole day, and she quite honestly didn’t want to keep it like that any longer.

Reaching the edge of town, she was about to start thinking about eating when she was interrupted by a loud voice calling for her. She frowned, knowing who it was. Looking to her right, she found a trio of fillies and a cyan mare sitting at a table. Looking toward the building near them, she saw that it was the local creamery.

She had stopped in the middle of the road, and in an attempt to ignore them, continued on her way. This was to no avail, of course, as she soon found herself stopped by a cyan blur, which quickly began to unhook her from the cart as she spoke, “AJ AJ AJ! C’mon now! No reason ta freakin’ hurt yourself! Come eat some ice cream-”

“Rainbow.”

“Hay, we could get you some rocky road too! Get it? ‘cuz you’re about to go kill yourself by pulling tons of useless junk across Ponyville?”

“Rainbow, now ain’t the time-”

“We could totally, like, have some Place Beyond The Pines thing! Like, like, I could be Luke and you-”

Applejack threw her hoof forward, placing it inside the cyan mare’s gaping mouth. Still hovering in the air, Rainbow gave her a surprised expression. “Rainbow?”

“Huh huhoohack?”

“Please be quiet.” She slid the hoof out, cringing. With a curse of disgust, she wiped her hoof on her side and looked back at Rainbow Dash. “Ah’m tired, and Ah sure as hay don’t need y’all talkin’ to me.”

“Then come and eat! You like ice cream, right?”

Applejack frowned, straightening herself, “Yes. But that ain’t important right now-”

“Don’t be such a baby,” Rainbow said, beginning to push the Earth Pony toward the table and creating twin pairs of gorges in the dirt, “let’s go get some ice cream, Jason.”

“Who?”

Rainbow stopped, Applejack likewise halting less than a foot away from the table. Applejack gave a long sigh, looking at the three fillies currently looking up at her, small spoons coiled in their hooves with bits of ice cream draped inside. She blinked, looking to the left. Apple Bloom stared back, her spoon dripping brown back into the paper bowl to join its comrades.

She slowly placed the spoon down, changing her expression to one of expectancy as she adjusted herself in her seat and crossed her forelegs, “Problem, officer-”

“Don’t even tell me you just said that and meant it, Apple Bloom.”

Bloom pursed her lip, “Sure did, sis.”

Rainbow laughed, slapping Applejack on the side, “Keep acting all cool like that and we’ll have to start calling you Flynn, Apple Bloom.”

“Who?”

“You guys must be, like, entertainmently neglected,” Rainbow said, face falling as she fell to the ground and went to her haunches.

Sweetie Belle piped in from across the table, saying simply, “I don’t think that’s a word…”

“You would know, you walking Oxford,” Scootaloo spat, glaring at her Unicorn friend.

“Ooh, a dictionary joke. How long did it take for you to come up with that?” Sweetie Belle asked, giving the Pegasus the evil eye, “Because it was hilarious. Ha ha ha ha HA!”

The two were stopped short of assaulting each other by two cyan hooves, the owner of said appendages chuckling nervously, “Heh heh heh, c’mon now. Don’t go fighting outside a freakin’ ice cream shop, you guys.” She looked at Scootaloo and narrowed her eyes, “That means you too Squirt.”

Scootaloo groaned, reclining back in her seat as Sweetie Belle did the same. They both stared intently at their paper bowls, neither moving an inch, their forelegs crossed.

Rainbow looked back at Applejack with a genuine smile, “They’re so adorable aren’t they?”

“Who are you again?”

“Very funny,” Rainbow said, pushing the mare back toward her cart, “let’s go. I’m taking you back to your house-”

“You ain’t leavin’ three possibly sociopathic fillies out here by themselves,” Applejack deadpanned, looking at her friend with a blank expression.

Rainbow blinked.

“Rainbow they have knives-”

“They’re fine!” She replied, driving the mare toward the front of the cart. Beginning to attach the straps, she continued, sweeping a hoof their way and looking at the Earth Pony. “See?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her friend without a word but only a slight frown, then swept her sight back to the table in question, finding Sweetie Belle, who currently held Scootaloo in a choke hold with Apple Bloom’s bow.

“Choke hold’s illegal!”

“Well, file a complaint.”

Rainbow noticed this, muttering an, “Oh shit,” as she quickly flew toward them. Applejack, rolling her eyes, began to walk off, unimpressed and simply not caring in the slightest. With a frown, she resumed her previous journey home.

Once again, she found herself both stopped and interrupted by the arrival of a cyan Pegasus, who looked at her from her left, only her head visible as she hovered in the air.

“Ah, c’mon AJ! They were just messin’ around-”

“Yeah!” Sweetie said, appearing to Applejack’s right with the rest of the CMC, “Besides, Scootaloo was losing anyway!”

“Shut up.”

Rainbow smirked, “That’s the Squirt I know! Proud of you!” She looked back at Applejack, who looked to her left and narrowed her eyes. “So you found the cart, huh? Where at?”

“Forest. Just outside o’ Ponyville.”

“Oh. Cool,” Rainbow replied, almost deflating at the rather anti-climactic answer.

“Yeah. Cool...”

Applejack’s eyes went wide. Looking to her left, she found him.

Rainbow Dash, still hovering in the air, was currently dragging Delirious by his forelegs, his masked face currently facing the area behind them. Looking over, he gave Applejack a very bored expression as he asked the mare holding him, “Can you let me down now?”

“No.”

Delirious blinked at Applejack.

She blinked back, but gave him a smile.

“So how’d she get you?”

Delirious sighed, answering her, “Well, she-”

Rainbow gave a loud laugh, interrupting the stallion, “I just flew over to where he was and grabbed him. Vanoss and that other guy didn’t even care!”

“Yeah, no shit they didn’t. They’d be laughin’ their asses off if I was being eaten by zombies.”

“Who’s that pig by the way? From what I saw in the sky, he’s pretty cool if he could beat your flank down like that.”

“That’s Wildcat. He’s an asshole.”

Sweetie Belle piped up from Applejack’s right side, “That’s not very nice, Delirious. He seems like a pretty nice guy!”

“He’s a pig though,” Scootaloo chimed in, “I didn’t even know pigs could talk.”

Apple Bloom scoffed, “Seriously? C’mon, we’ve got talkin’ cows on the farm- how little did y’all pay attention in grade school?”

Scootaloo laughed, “Not enough.”

Applejack rolled her eyes, looking back at Delirious, “Speakin’ of the farm, Delirious, Ah might be needin’ your help here real soon for somethin’.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Like what?”

She snorted, staring back at the road ahead of her, “Field work.”

Delirious groaned loudly, rolling his eyes but not giving her an answer. Satisfied, the six continued on their way as the sun began to disappear from sight above them.

It was a long while before they made their way to the gate that marked Sweet Apple Acres’ boundaries. Rainbow Dash had long stopped dragging Delirious, and so the stallion was the first to walk inside, holding the gate open for the mares to get past. As Applejack, the last one, passed by with a quick thank you, he closed the gate with a smile and joined the group as they began to walk toward the house.

Approaching the front door, Delirious frowned as he spotted a familiar figure walking out. His eyes widened as he noticed the group, a hoof holding a green apple. Swallowing the food, he looked at Applejack, who gave him a smile as she pulled up in front of him.

“Howdy Big Macintosh. What’cha still doin’ up?”

He looked at his sister and waved his head toward the barn, “Was ‘bout ta head back there. Ah was workin’ one some of the tools from last year, but Ah see y’all’ve found the cart.” He leaned to his right and spotted Delirious walking up to them. He frowned and narrowed his eyes. “What’s he doin’ here-”

“Big Macintosh, he’s just here ta help with the Harvest.”

“Oh is that right?” Big Macintosh asked, walking over to him, “an’ what’s he think he can do fer us, then, hm?” Standing in front of him, he sized up the smaller Pegasus, who glared back at him and growled.

“Fuck off, asshole.”

“Y’all watch your mouth. Ah ain’t havin’ some rude stallion just up and walkin’ around with mah sisters.”

“He’s not rude!”

Big Macintosh turned, a look of shock on his face as he stared at Apple Bloom, who frowned at him, “Delirious is a nice guy! Y’all just need ta quit bein’ so rude ta him!”

Mac’s head swiveled about like a hawk, green eyes glaring into blue. The Earth Pony stepped forward menacingly, pressing his forehead against Delirious’. Surprisingly to him, the Pegasus didn’t even seem to flinch, staring him back down almost as easily as he. Macintosh growled.

Delirious hissed.

“You heard her.”

Mac’s eyes widened, but returned to their previous state almost immediately.

“Quit bein’ so rude.”

The Earth Pony studied him for what seemed to be hours, his expression unchanged. Finally, he gave out a long breath of anger and turned on his heel, brushing past Rainbow Dash.

“Mac…”

“Not now, Rainbow,” he said in a hushed voice, walking toward Applejack. Waving a hoof, she quickly got out of the wagon’s setup, stepping out of the way as Mac began to hook himself up to it. Succeeding, he trotted toward the barn as quickly as possible. Applejack, meanwhile, gave a look toward her friends, biting her lower lip at their looks of lacking impression.

Rainbow looked over at Delirious, who was watching Mac leave with narrowed eyes. Flattening her lips, she spoke, “Hey uh, sorry about the big lug. He’s not so nice around new ponies, especially other stallions.”

“Why’s that?”

“Proably ‘cause he thinks one of them will sweep me off my hooves and take me away from him,” she laughed, “it’s kinda cute to be honest.” She looked back at Mac, then turned back to Delirious and added, “I think he’s just surprised I’m with him and not some other really athletic Pegasus.”

Delirious rolled his eyes and glared at Applejack.

She seethed, glanced at the barn, and tipped her hat at the Pegasi, apologizing, “Sorry. Ah’ll go talk to ‘im.” With that, she left running, intent on catching up to him before he reached the barn. She failed at this, instead getting to him as he just finished opening the front door. Seeing her, he grimaced, adjusted the cart, and walked inside as Applejack followed suit.

Standing next to a stall, he began to take off the hitch, commenting, “We can start the Harvest tomorrow, now that we’ve got these.” Finishing, he gazed at his sister and added, “It’ll be a tough job.”

“Rainbow will be happy ta help, as always. Ah know how much ya wanted her to be here. And, if we need it, Ah’ve got a few other helping hooves from town that are more ‘an capable of lendin’ a hoof or two.”

“Like who?”

Applejack sat on her haunches and crossed her forelegs as she gave her brother a very condescending look, “Delirious-”

“Oh don’t even start with me Applejack…”

“Friend o’ his, Vanoss as well. Plus another one, Wildcat.”

Macintosh leered at her, “Y’all can’t be serious. If they’re anythin’ like that Pegasus, they ain’t gonna do much in part o’ helpin’.”

“Now that just ain’t fair Big Macintosh,” Applejack replied, listening to him as he groaned and walked toward a few barrels in the corner to her left, “y’all should listen to Apple Bloom more often. Delirious is a nice pony-”

“Ah’m sure he is,” Mac replied, reaching for a mug atop the barrel, “but a ‘nice guy’ ain’t somethin’ we need. We need somepony who can actually do work instead of just jerkin’ off in the bushes…”

“Big Macintosh!” Applejack fumed, “There ya go again! What is the matter with you?! Can’t y’all just be nice to somepony for once?”

“With the way he is,” the stallion began, holding the mug underneath the spout on the side of the cylinder as he gave it a kick, “Ah doubt he’ll be nice all the time.”

Applejack scoffed, watching as her brother began to fill his mug. Walking over to him as he rose it to his lips, she scowled and threw her hoof into it, knocking it and the liquid inside to the floor. Growling at her brother, who glared back, she said, “Ah ain’t takin’ none o’ your bullshit, Big Macintosh.”

He gave her narrowed eyes in response. Rolling her own eyes, she began to walk out the door, but stopped at the threshold and looked back at her brother one last time, coldly adding, “If y’all wanna spend the next couple o’ weeks workin’ yer tail off, that’s fine by me. Don’t expect none of us ta help, ‘cause Ah ain’t taking none o’ this any longer.”

With that, she slammed the barn door shut, leaving him in a lamp-illuminated room by himself. Looking toward the ground, he sighed at the remains of his mug and spoiled drink. Green eyes darted upward across the room. There was another cup inside the cabinet.

Walking over to it, he opened it and found the flagon in question. Retrieving it, he started to trot back, glancing inside the cart as he went. Stopping, something caught his eye. Lowering the mug on the side of the wagon, he leaned into it and picked up what he had seen.

His eyes narrowed as he read it.

We found your cart. Hope the harvest goes well.
I think we’ll be seeing each other again very shortly.

Signed,
A Friend

Author's Notes:

A bit trigger happy when it comes to chapters.